How can this be put nicely?

[Bruv119]

coppr sorry but jumping in an M3 and magically popping a bunch of buildings that someone or group took the time to prep is not the hard way it is the EASY way out.   

I find it very un-realistic in a base capture/defence sense and off hours it has a much bigger impact than prime time.   We went from the one decent fight on the map to complete stagnation.   I cant clone myself so any base attacks rely heavily on having zero opposition to be successful and when thats the case we might aswell go play offline by ourselves.

Prime time might be different and it may work as HTC intended to help mini hordes from sweeping fields.  I dont have any perfect solutions but any sane person can see that M3 resupply is killing the game! 

[Copprhed]

Bruv, if you think that nerfing M3s will save the game you're mistaken. When they get nerfed and bases just keep getting rolled, EVEN IN OFF HOURS, do you think that will improve player numbers?

[Copprhed]

I just left the MA, and, as usual, Knights were outnumbered, and the Rooks were upping at one base after another depending on which one was being defended. You want M3s nerfed so you can just roll in on outnumbered teams and take bases. Now THAT'S REAL COMPETITION. I stopped playing at night because almost every time I go in, Bishops have more players than Knights and Rooks combined, or Bishops and Rooks are ignoring each other and teaming on Knights. To me, this push to change resupply isn't about fighting, it's about NOT fighting. It's about "I want bases for free". If so, go into the AvA where there is no one there and take all the bases unopposed that you desire...

[Ciaphas]

HTC could also counter the need for resup and help slow down captures of undefended fields by changing the AAA efficiency on those fields that do not have defenders.


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[Bruv119]

I just left the MA, and, as usual, Knights were outnumbered, and the Rooks were upping at one base after another depending on which one was being defended. You want M3s nerfed so you can just roll in on outnumbered teams and take bases. Now THAT'S REAL COMPETITION. I stopped playing at night because almost every time I go in, Bishops have more players than Knights and Rooks combined, or Bishops and Rooks are ignoring each other and teaming on Knights. To me, this push to change resupply isn't about fighting, it's about NOT fighting. It's about "I want bases for free". If so, go into the AvA where there is no one there and take all the bases unopposed that you desire...

Sorry I was comparing gameplay pre m3 resupply to what it is now and noting that IMO it is worse.

You logout off peak and let the bish take all the nitland.  Agreed that is preferable to running around in an m3 trying to resupply everything.   

Now if Myself and one or two others (id be lucky) decide to counter or take some fields away from the double numbered Bish side we dont stand a chance because with their ENY the 1st thing they do to defend from us is roll supplies and we have very little chance to make any strategic wins from a losing situation. 

[Vraciu]

I'm tired of these ridiculous CONTINUOUS attempts to tell us how to play the game. YOU play the way YOU want, but STOP telling ME how to play MY GAME. M-3s are fine, anyone saying otherwise is no more than a whining pansy who only wants things the easy way. Play the game.

Stealth M3s vs getting in a Fighter and you complain about the easy way?  #Irony

[Hajo]

Keep the GVs', take away spawn points.  You want a GV battle do it the old fashioned way.  Travel to it.  Make a GV battle.  Set up ambushes and attacks, plan them.

Just a thought.....we don't have airspawns in the MA and glad we don't.  And sometimes scenarios have airspawns ARGHHHHHHHHHH.  Make it somewhat realistic and ditch the spawns in the air and on the ground.  Not trying to say play it my way.  Do as you wish.  This game has lost more history Junkies then anything else.  The result is a dumb downed first person shooter in some instances.

There are probably a multitude of reasons why numbers have declined.  They've declined substantially since I've been in the game and see no evidence that it will increase.

The generations of players who participated in this game have changed.  That's why Scenarios are lucky to get 70 participants. Generational change.  A lot more baby boomers used to play this game whose parents participated in WWII.  It was something that we as baby boomers heard a lot about from our parents, uncles etc.  So we wished to participate in a more realistic manner.  Our children
 (mine are in their forties btw) knew their grandparents and heard the true stories from that war.  So when we saw a WWII MMOG with air combat we came in droves (AW, and here).

So in essence imho the game is now a first person shooter.  There used to be mass bombing missions with escorts in the past.  Fun!  Generated a great fight in the air with a modicum of realism.
That has disappeared to a great degree.  Now it's chiefly flash and dazzle that is required, something that doesn't take to much thought and time to do.  Scenarios could be very good but since participation is low they've turned into Snap Shots during a 12 hour battle or 4 Saturdays.  Pity.  There used to be 150 to 250 participating and the CMs are handcuffed with design because of the low turnout.  Either way you look at it this game needs more participation. How that comes about I don't know.  All I know since I've been here 18 years that many have left for various reasons.  The ones that have left have not been replaced.  Some have come back for short periods such as Thunder and cited game play.  And they also left again.  Game is fine.  The participants have changed and their view of how to play the game hasn't attracted much if any at all.  I took a break of about 6 months I believe and came back when AH3 went Beta.  It was fun.  When it went full nothing changed but an improvement in Graphics.  Game play the same.  It's everyone's 15 dollars and they should play as they wish.  Once getting here we have to keep players.  Great aircraft flight modeling doesn't do it neither do the graphics.  Is the game more difficult for new players?  Is there to much time to be invested to be somewhat good at it?  Is their a lack of patience to the new players who want arcade type games?  Lot's to be considered.  I'm just giving you my point of view.  The game is fine. It's the participants who actually identify the game and make the game.

Something to think about as I don't have an answer. But what I do know what is happening at the current time is not working.  The tools we are given are basically the same that we had in 1999-2000.
There have been great additions in aircraft and GVs.  This subject has been discussed Ad-Nausea.  Change is needed an it' ain't with the graphics or maps.  Hell we flew over the same map day after day after day in AW and we still played and came in great number. So someone tell me where the fault is?  No finger pointing.  We shouldn't point fingers at differing ways to play the game.  What's the problem?  <shrugz>  I don't want to hear the same responses we've had in this post and the many previous posts on this subject because evidently we've all been wrong or the community is stuck in this cycle.  What do we need to do as a Community to attract more participants that we can effect change for the good and attract more participants.  It's not the Game, it's us.
 

[Max]

If country #'s were close to even, the argument to defuse M3 town resupply would be valid & welcome. Log in as a Rook any morning or early afternoon (EST) and you're going to find 2x the number of Bish. 90% of them will be rolling bases...usually hitting Rooks first and Knights second.

Tell me please, how do you rally a fighter defense (which does happen) when the odds are 3:1 or worse? How do you mount a defense when the horde nuked the FH's...or are getting vulched on the RW? Perhaps adding manned guns in town while limiting the # of buildings able to be resupplied might strike a reasonable balance?

The game is supposed to be about fun. Getting steamrolled and having base after base pulled out from under is more about aggravation and frustration than it is fun.

 

[oboe]

What about Interdiction as a game tactic?   

Barracks are pretty soft targets; taking out the barracks at the fields with spawns into the field you're trying to take precludes the enemy from being able to resupply the town.  Theoretically, I think it could also disperse the action from "everybody at one field" into smaller actions at the feeder fields in addition to the action at the main point of attack.   It just takes a little more planning and coordination to capture a field now.   We may yet learn to modify our game play to account for this.   I have hope!   For me anyway, it adds a bit more realism and depth to a game about conquering territory.

Personally, I'd like to see field supply delivery removed from the 50mph M3 - I think using it for troops, mobile artillery, or vehicle supplies is multi-role enough.  I'd rather see this vehicle added as a driveable 30-40 mph vehicle, whose dedicated role is town/field supply:





   

[Lusche]

Keep the GVs', take away spawn points.  You want a GV battle do it the old fashioned way.  Travel to it.

Taking away the spawn points from maps would simply kill off the whole Gv portion of the game.
Who's going to travel 2 hours through mountainous terrain just to get a bomb on his head?

What do we need to do as a Community to attract more participants that we can effect change for the good and attract more participants.  It's not the Game, it's us.

If the customer doesn't like to buy your product, it's not the customers fault.

Any solution that depends on "All the players have to change their ways" is going to fail, because that's not how life works. If it were actually the players actions which would hurt the game, gameplay mechanisms would have to be put in place to counter it.
It's the game. It's that simple. "It was good enough for us back in the day" would kill any business over time. When gaming environments (yes, this is a game and always has been), customer expectations, public relation strategies or whatever are changing over the decades, so has to do a game.  It's just the 'how' & 'what' which is the difficult problem

AH is now almost 20 years on the market (and it's lineage tracing back much longer). In this business this is a terrific long time. 

[Dundee]

There has been a departure from "some" fun aspects in the game, in favor of "some" more challenging aspects of the game.

In short, resupplying towns at current rate does nothing to promote air combat.  Add to that the incredible difficulty in spotting M3s long enough to be able to track its position for a realistic strafing run, I am back to re-arranging my sock drawer to improve entertainment value.

I just wish that portion of the "game" would be nudged in favor of the lonely fighter wishing to experience more air conflict.

The shiny ground objects with wheels or sometimes tracks, would be much better serve the active roll of combat if they were needed to cut off troop advance from C47s or M3s, rather than deliver time warp magical dust from Merlin the Wizard.

(Well, at least it sounded nicer in my head).

I think the GV's have been beaten down enough......... just live with it

[save]

Except with the the Wirbys...
They defend a base against aerial attacks  much more effective than a plane can, and will not be seen from that plane until the plane are shot down.

I think the GV's have been beaten down enough......... just live with it

[Chilli]

Oboe,

I like that rationale using barracks, except for the one thing that has eluded most in this thread, the balance.  How many attackers will be used to 1)  knock out all the barracks / vehicle hangars that spawn to target field,  2) knock out  all town ack,  3) knock down town buildings and prep white flag, 4) maintain air defense / protect troop arrival from air or hidden ground defenders, and most importantly 5) do all the above in a time constraint.

Now, following Oboe's very correct observation, this all would need to have been preceded by bombing runs on Country Strats.   

Note:  All of these things the attackers are doing are promoting COMBAT!  M3 resupply is just a TOOL.  Most probably the reason why one particular country is known to gain superior numbers and roll bases, while "flicking" away any possible loss of bases without dimenishing their attack force.  (Funny how the thing you desire to save you, ends up eating your lunch). 



Yes, the Opel would be an acceptable replacement tool.  It even fits in with the convoy system that was lost with the latest version.


Copprhed,

Sorry I haven't been around much lately so that you may properly release your venom (Bf110 fang style) into twisting bloodied wreckage.  Geez, I never knew you had such affinity for anything as toothless as the M3.


   

[bustr]

If you impose time restrictions on the average tank longer than about 7 minutes to transit you will loose those players and a percentage also fly planes. Hitech made a statement about spawns, that they are an equivalent to getting a tank into combat at the same rate a fighter gets there in our not so arbitrary sector of 25 miles. You can quibble over that due to simply wanting Hitech to wave his magic keyboard and take away whatever is bothering you. Still, the time factor in the MA is a fixed feature and the point of the MA is bringing customers together sooner than later to create activity. Even WT does this with it's minuscule arenas and imposed side balancing for matches.

Complicated schedules applied to game functions will not make the MA more interesting to play in other than for people seeking complication. Hitech did a test, I think inadvertently, where he found when he complicated a feature becasue that was being asked for, players stopped using it. Complexity and nuance does not equate to fun for the majority of customers in this kind of game. If it did, IL2 would be jammed with players, and WT would have lines waiting to get into the realism match arenas.

This game has survived this long by not being nuanced and complex other than the requirements of learning and polishing skills to become good at it. When changes have been introduced by Hitech, they stay inside of that frame work which really does make the game easy to play, just complicated to be very good quickly. I have wondered if that is the real learning hurdle for the new generation of gamers with our game. They get offended that they can't just fire it up and be a master of their game controller asap. Many of the negative reviews at Steam seemed more like the person was offended the game took effort even though it looked so old school and simple.

Think much less complicated when you spitball changes to the MA functions. You might have a better chance of catching Hitech's attention. Like I've chosen to explore the limitations of the terrain editor to see if more can be accomplished with it to help evolve the game. Seems it just requires some effort to get good at it first while spending the time learning how to design terrains to help players want to create activity.

I know, it's easier to type and yell at Hitech to wave his magic keyboard.....

[noman]

People have forgotten how to pork fields. 1 or 2 guys porking fields around the field you are attacking and doing it during the initial attack and guess what? no ord, no resupply.